THE LESS YOU'LL SEE
NOTES: At last, Jack. #AtlastJack
But we didn't expect it to be that easy, did we?
This chapter is for AnotherGirlWithAStory, whose generous reviews and kind words served as a huge motivation for me to finish 5 chapters in a span of two days. A big, big thank you can only be done in the form of this chapter, which I hope you find to your liking.
The usual drill: I cannot stress these points enough, so I will put these at the start of every chapter:
This is primarily a Lover's Death story.
I do not own anyone (i.e., characters, etc) or anything (i.e., lines, scenes, concepts, etc) from the Now You See Me series. Absolutely no copyright infringement intended.
Some events in this story are inspired by my own experiences, and should you see yourself in the story, then let me give you a high five, but that honestly was not my intention.
September 2008: #AtlastJack (Part 1)
Before long, it was time for the show.
Lula was nervous. It was her first show, after all.
Henley was anxious. It was their first show together, as a new unit.
Merritt was worried. It was their first show since the incident, and he had no idea what would happen.
Daniel was beyond breaking point. It was his first show without him, and felt the familiar pang of loneliness and grief striking him. He took a few calming breaths, willing himself to get his act together. He had to do this. For his team. For himself. For Jack.
And Jack was all of the above, a solo act in the middle of the bigger performance, but he understood the implication of his role. He had to be useful to the four without them feeling his presence. Most of all, though, he was excited: it was September, and that meant just a few weeks until finally, finally, he and Danny would be together again.
He could only hope that they would fall into place as easily as he wished.
Jack planted himself in the front of house, stealing things that could be of use when he had to go backstage much later to set up the pieces for the other four. Really, he didn't know why The Eye thought they needed him – in between Lula's mutilation stunts, Henley's disappearing act, Merritt's mentalism, and Danny's overall quick fingers, they seemed to have gotten it all under control.
All he had to do, really, was to sweep the little remnants they left in their wake: pacifying the overly excited crowd following Lula's fake arm flying halfway across the room, leaving Merritt a clear shot to hypnotize the Board Member set to make the opening speech, providing an extra distraction to ensure that Henley really did disappear, and…
It was ironic that he would help the one person who mattered the most in the same media room that Jack had very nearly encountered him mere days before.
Jack was passing by with another guard, purely with the intent to make sure that everything was all right, when Danny stepped out of the media room wearing the blue overalls of a mechanic, holding another man by the cuff of his identical mechanic's suit. "Guard, excuse me, we have an intruder here," Danny said irritably, addressing Jack directly without looking at him. "He had a bracelet on – you might want to check it."
There was a split second that Jack relished the fact that Danny – his Danny – had directly addressed him. It took all his willpower and focus to mutter a gruff, "All right, what do we have here?" he said in a voice that wasn't his own. "Elkhorn Mental Institute, John… Yates."
"No! No! This guy—this guy slapped it on me, and—"
"Come with us, buddy!" the other guard barked roughly.
"Wait! I can have a phone call! It's my right, it's my right!"
Jack, at this point, had deftly taken the other man's phone and replaced it with a banana he had confiscated earlier in the front of house. He addressed the other guard. "Dude, he's right, give him his phone, he can have a call."
The real mechanic looked at Jack and nodded. "Thank you," he said stiffly, drawing a… banana from his pocket. He screamed protests all the way until the other guard rounded the corner with him.
Jack stole a glance at the media room, but it was already completely empty, the mechanic's overalls on the floor. He grinned, feeling something flutter in his chest. It was time to get on with the show.
Nothing could go wrong now.
Later on, Jack Wilder would go back to the moment he said that nothing could go wrong, and say how fucking wrong he was about that: it really was quite quick how he had transitioned from watching his friends and the love of his life take the stage by storm to being seized with dread as everything started to go wrong.
The Board Member who Jack recognized as the one Merritt had hypnotized earlier came up the stage, eyes slightly out of focus, but not noticeable to the regular viewer. He chuckled as he wondered what words Merritt was going to the man spew out.
"Good evening, scholars!" the man started amiably. "Now, I've made the claim that there is nothing more important in this world than a progressive education, the nourishment of minds in this simple institution." The man shrugged carelessly, putting on a silly smile. "But the truth is, it's just one of those things I say, when in fact, I actually mean something else."
Excited murmurs filled the auditorium. "What else do I mean?" the Board Member droned on. "Well, here to fill you in on our fabulous lies and hypocrisy, and to perform some of the most dazzling feats of magic you have ever seen – the world's greatest magicians. Here to expose me and some of my fellow corrupt ones for the frauds that we are, ladies and gentlemen, the Four Horsemen!"
Four figures burst through the screen to much screaming and cheers. Jack shook his head as he clapped along, looking in awe at his friends and…
Danny had a small elfin smile on his face. "Hello, Elkhorn! Thank you so much, it's great to be back."
"Give it up for our newest Horseman, Lula!" Henley screamed into her mic as Lula gave a low bow.
Jack saw Merritt wink at Lula, mouthing, "Feels good, don't it?"
Lula nodded excitedly, surveying the adoring crowd. "Pretty good. Pretty good!"
Danny clapped his hands twice. "Thank you, thank you. Now, look, we're here to talk about your education. What does your education, your future mean to you? Because apparently, it means nothing to some of your Board Members right here."
Henley shook her head of long red hair. "No, Danny, it's less than that. It means less than nothing to these guys. You see, they mocked your education – in fact, they scorned it."
"We aren't just talking about your regular scorning, mind you," Merritt said in his bored, drawling voice. "We're talking theft on an epic proportion, one that—" Static interrupted Merritt's words, cutting off his mic somehow.
Lula took over immediately. "Theft for their own personal—oww," she cried as the static resurfaced, and she too was cut off almost immediately.
The alarm bells rang in Jack's mind: something was wrong.
He saw it first in the face of Danny, which twitched with discomfort as they lost their mics and a deep crackle filled the sound system. A broken face filling the screens in lieu of the Horsemen, cutting off Lula completely.
"Danny, what's going on?" Henley said, forgetting that the mic was still live.
"Oh my, my, my," came a deep voice, one that filled the auditorium. "Magic is about controlling perception, Horsemen. Are you truly the champions of truth? Or is this just another one of your tricks? You and your secrets, Horsemen, you and your secrets…"
"Abort," Danny said in a very tight voice as he started to take off his mic.
"Daniel Atlas, the master of secrets; Lula May, the wide-eyed newbie. You two have nothing in common, don't you? Or so you thought," came that deep, electronic voice. "Let me reveal the biggest secret of all, one that was so well-kept from you, one that has been right under your nose this whole time."
Suddenly, there was a cry in the audience as the harsh spotlight turned to the security guard from this evening. The guard cried out as he was blinded by the light – he couldn't see anything or anyone for a split second as he tried and failed to disappear. In the guard's struggle, the wig and beard had fallen to the ground, and people were screaming his name, and Danny heard a faint whimper escape his mouth as he looked at Jack Wilder, back from the dead, and who now struggled to stumble out of the spotlight as more flashes went off, people desperate to take a photo of Lazarus.
"You recall the guard with the cheating wife from two days ago, and the guard who took away that poor mechanic early this evening," the voice continued mockingly. "You two have been tricked by your friends, by the so-called love of your little lives, into believing that the death of Jack Wilder was real. Well… he's been very much alive for the last two agonizing months."
"No," Danny whispered, falling on his knees, gazing at Jack, now fighting his way through the crowd to get up onstage. "This isn't real—"
"And what more… oh," the deep voice seemed to chuckle in a sinister way. "The FBI is here."
Danny was aware of the security guard in front of him, shaking him by the shoulders, but it was so strange – he had Jack's face, though it was older and more tired than he last remembered seeing it. His fingers were shaking as they moved to touch the face, willing it to come back to reality, because Jack's face couldn't possibly change, not when he escaped all changes two months ago—
"You're not real," he mumbled as he squinted.
"Atlas, move!" Merritt's voice boomed in his ear, and without thinking, he felt his legs move on their own to flee with the other four. "Run to the chute now!"
"What the bleeding FUCK?" Lula screamed as they all ran wildly to the rooftop. She was crying furiously, looking at Jack as they fled. "You are fucking DEAD, Wilder!"
Jack closed his eyes. "I was—"
"NO, YOU AREN'T NOW, BUT YOU WILL BE!" she screeched, pointing at the dazed and hypnotized fleeing figure of Daniel Atlas. "IF HE WON'T KILL YOU, THEN IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE!"
"LULA!" Henley snapped, her breath short from the running they had to do. "RUN NOW, KILL LATER!"
"The chute!" Merritt cried as he slid down without a second thought, everyone following immediately.
It seemed like the chute went on forever, but finally, they were at the end of it. Instead of landing on the ground, though, they landed in an empty white room. Danny blinked, the spell lifted from him, and looked around dazedly at his companions. When he saw Jack, who was looking for a way out of the room, he shrank back.
"Oh God, oh God, I'm finally crazy," Danny mumbled, facing the wall and knocking his head on it repeatedly.
Jack immediately turned in concern and started walking toward Danny, but Lula intercepted him and— SMACK!
Jack's head turned to one side, an angry red mark on his face. "What the HELL, Lula?!"
"Don't you DARE, Joaquin Wilder!" she screamed, shoving him forcefully. "Don't you DARE get all pissy and hissy at me, because you have no FUCKING right to! You lied to me, you lied to everybody, you lied to—God damn it, Jack!" She burst into tears, throwing her arms around him and weeping into his shoulder.
Before Jack could so much as react, an invisible door in the white walls swung open. Two muscled men entered and made to touch them, but before any of them could even fight back, a chipper voice chimed in: "Now, boys, no manhandling my guests! They can walk, you know."
Henley knelt down next to Danny, who was still blankly facing the wall. "Danny, come on," she said gently. "I'm real. You're real. Jack is real. He's always been," she said in a broken voice.
Danny looked at her, the death in his eyes pronounced once more. "You knew?" he asked in a small voice.
She closed her eyes and tried to touch him. "Danny—"
"Don't," he said harshly, standing up abruptly and walking out of the room.
When he entered the room, a large dome-like living room with plush seats, he immediately surveyed the surroundings. Hired muscle on all corners of the room, and a small man facing the skyline, dressed all in white and humming something that sounded suspiciously like 'Stayin' Alive'. Lula seated on the solo seat next to the long couch, where Henley, Merritt, and Jack were seated in. Danny gulped, immediately moving to the other side of the room, until one of the hired muscle pushed him and forced him to sit right next to Jack, who immediately tensed up next to him.
For a long moment, there was only silence. It was only broken by the man in white, who turned to the five with a happy smile on his face. "Now come on, guys, don't be shy. This has been a reunion months – years, in fact, in the making! The least you could do to thank me is to actually use it well! Henley? Merritt? No? Lula, then? Danny? Or—oh, the star of the night—Jack Wilder?"
The mere mention of his name was unbelievably painful, and having him next to him just about set Danny on edge. How many times had he fantasized for this moment to come? How many times had he cried himself to sleep, knowing it wasn't going to happen, and still—it did? Was this what he wanted?
"Cut the horseshit, Walter, we know what you want," Jack said irritably, and oh!, that voice was certainly something; it was just as perfect as he remembered it, it was real, and he was actually here—
"Jack-o, you forget that not all of us do," Merritt supplied unhelpfully.
Danny looked directly at Merritt, his eyes narrowing. "You knew," he said simply.
Merritt rubbed his face with his hands. "Atlas, now really isn't—"
"Fuck you," Danny spat bitterly.
"Danny—" Jack said gently, trying to reach for him.
"And you," he said with venom and pure hatred as he stepped away from Jack, pointing a shaking finger at him. "Stay away from me, Wilder."
"Walter, Walter Mabry?" Henley cut in, desperate to regain some semblance of normalcy in the otherwise screwed-up situation they found themselves in. "Why the hell—"
Before Walter could even speak, Jack stood up in exasperation. "Because he was in cahoots with Owen Case to get database files from every university they could swindle, and he wants us to shut up about it," he explained angrily.
"We don't have your files. Hell, we don't know anything about it!" Henley snapped.
Walter shook his head, pointing at Jack. "You don't. But he does."
Lula looked confused as she raised a hand sarcastically. "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm kind of lost here. I didn't sign up for this, so can someone kindly onboard me with WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
"Patience, Lula," Walter said easily. "You'll understand everything as we go down our nice little list of issues to talk about. But first, don't you want to know how you got here?"
"We already know how you did it," Henley said with a sarcastic little smile.
Walter's eyes narrowed. "No, you don't."
"Sure, we do!" Merritt said in a chipper voice. "First, you stole our files for the show, then you obviously hypnotized us—"
The bearded man shook his head agitatedly. "No, seriously, stop."
"The strobe was a combination of binaural beats, as well as—" Jack drawled on, but was immediately cut off by Walter Mabry's right hand, which was now on his mouth, the left hand clutching the collar of his jacket. A familiar sensation filled Danny as he observed the contact between Jack and their kidnapper.
"I SAID STOP!" Walter's hand slid down slightly, the tip of his nose practically touching Jack's. "You might not be having fun, but I am," he said earnestly.
Jack's dark eyes looked him over warily. "You have a weird way of showing it, man."
"So—" Walter said delicately as he took a step back. "How did I do it? Easy. In your heightened state of agitation, you saw the simplest cues. Black tube, roof. And your minds filled in the rest. But the tube you meant to go down
was 20 feet to your right. Anyway, once in the tube, yes, you're right... Blah, blah, blah, the strobe contained UV letters pulsing the word "sleep." And that, combined with the sound, put you into an instant alpha pattern. And from then on, it really was just fun." He concluded as he turned on the television set, which flashed different images of the five in various compromising positions, bulk of which featured Jack and Danny.
There was a pink tinge coloring Danny's cheeks as he indifferently cut in Walter's slideshow. "All right, that's enough," he said in a clipped tone as Jack coughed in embarrassment. "So, why are we here? Other than you showing off how adorably clever you are?"
"Well, Mr. Wilder was right about the reason he gave, but that's not all." Walter's eyes twinkled mischievously as he looked at Jack. "Go on, Mr. Wilder, let's not have those two months of reconnaissance work go to waste, tell them why you are all here."
Jack glared at Walter and looked at everyone but Danny. "He invented the ultimate computer chip that will unlock anything in the world, and he wants us to steal it back from the guys who stole it from him last year."
"Yes," Walter interjected bitterly. "They wanted it for themselves, so they humiliated me by exposing my private files
to the board of directors and convinced them that I am unstable."
"Oh, yeah? Did you take a picture of him while he was sleeping?" Danny quipped. Jack snorted.
Walter frowned, ignoring Danny's comment. "Although, I could have given more drama and flair to that story, Jackie boy, but that will do," he said grudgingly. "So what do you say?"
Henley scoffed. "Why, do you think, would we steal something for you?"
"Um, oh, wait, I had a reason. What was it? Oh, yes. You see, back home, you're wanted criminals. But with the tech you will get for me, I can control the police, the casinos, the media. I can give you a new life, out of hiding," Walter ended with a shrug. "And if you don't, I'll have you killed."
When he put it that way, it was a pretty convincing case.
But dear Lord, Jack Wilder was tired. He was tired of being someone else's puppet, of putting his life on hold to do someone else a favor. He wanted to make a stand if not for the last time in his life.
"You know what? Screw this, and screw you," Jack drawled, drawing himself up to his full height and facing Walter down. "I'm not going to do anything for you."
Walter's eyes flashed dangerously. "You sure about that, Mr. Wilder?" He nodded, and predictably, Danny felt the barrel of the gun against the side of his head. Jack's heart leapt in his throat even as he saw Danny struggle to keep his eyes from rolling. "Are you really sure about that?"